Ground the Drones...Lest we Reap the Whirlwind

by 14 arrested Fri Apr 10, 2009 13:33

April 9, 2009

Indian Springs, NV – Late this afternoon, fourteen peace activists
were arrested at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada. The
arrests occured during a ten day vigil which seeks to raise public
awareness of the increasing use of unmanned drones in the war in
Afghanistan and Pakistan. Air Force personnel based at Creech control
the Predator and Reaper drones being used in Central Asia.

The 14 people walked through the open main gate shortly after 3:00
p.m. Air Force security personnel stopped them after they walked into
the base. They were seeking to engage in dialogue and conversation
with the Air Force service members controlling the Predators and
Reapers used in Central Asia. In a gesture of good will, they offered
to break bread and share pizza with Air Force personnel.

The Nevada State Highway Patrol responded as did the Las Vegas Metro
Police Department. The activists were arrested on the charge of
trespass and transported to the Clark County Detention Facility. The
14 are currently being booked and processed at the facility.

Those arrested include:
John Dear, S.J. (New Mexico)
Kathy Kelly (twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize from Illinois)
Dennis DuVall (Arizona)
Renee Espeland (Des Moines, Iowa Catholic Worker Community)
Judy Homanich (Binghamton, New York)
Steve Kelly, S.J. (California)
Mariah Klusmire (Albuquerque, New Mexico Catholic Worker community)
Louis Vitale, O.F.M. (Oakland, California)
Jerry Zawada, O.F.M. (Tuscson, Arizona)
Sister Megan Rice, SHCJ (Nevada Desert Experience, Las Vegas, Nevada)
Brian Terrell (Strangers & Guests Catholic Worker, Maloy, Iowa)
Eve Tetaz (Washington, D.C.)
Brad Lyttle (Chicago, Illinois)
Elizabeth Pappalardo (Crystal Lake, Illinois)

by Update Fri Apr 10, 2009 23:32

April 10 update from the Nuclear Resister: Thirteen of the activists arrested at Creech AFB were released from custody this morning and have a June 9 court date on trespass charges. They are headed back to Creech AFB to join peacewalkers and others for the Good Friday Stations of the Cross. Steve Kelly refused to sign the citation and is still being held at the Clark County Detention Facility.
xxxx

Protesting priest's path leads repeatedly to jail

Father Louis Vitale has engaged in civil disobedience for nearly four decades in pursuit of peace and justice. 'He is following in the footsteps of St. Francis,' a bishop says.

By Richard C. Paddock
Los Angeles Times
April 8, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-protest-priest9...story

by counterpunch Tue Apr 14, 2009 16:35

The Afghan Rubik's Cube

http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan04142009.html

by Report Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:23

"My night in the Las Vegas Jail" by John Dear SJ

http://www.paxchristiusa.org/news_Events_more.asp?id=1552

by Democracy Now Mon Apr 20, 2009 21:08

Longtime Anti-Nuclear Activist John Dear Arrested 75+ Times Protesting
War and Nuclear Weapons
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/20/longtime_anti_nuc..._dear

We speak with longtime anti-nuclear activist and Jesuit priest, Father
John Dear, who coordinates the annual Hiroshima Day peace vigil at Los
Alamos on August 1st. Dear has been arrested more than seventy-five
times for acts of civil disobedience against war and nuclear weapons,
including last week while protesting the US drone warplanes at Creech
Air Force Base in Nevada. He has written over twenty-five books, and
his most recent book is his autobiography, A Persistent Peace. Last
year, Archbishop Desmond Tutu nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

by drones Wed May 13, 2009 06:00

America's New Air Force
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/08/60minutes/mai...shtml

Increasingly, the U.S. military is relying on un-manned, often armed
aircraft to track and destroy the enemy - sometimes controlled from
bases thousands of miles away from the battlefront. Lara Logan
reports.

Watch it now: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5004882n

by C.I.A. tactics Mon Jun 15, 2009 00:21

By GARETH PORTER

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s refusal to share with other agencies even the most basic data on the bombing attacks by remote-controlled unmanned predator drones in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region, combined with recent revelations that CIA operatives have been paying Pakistanis to identify the targets, suggests that managers of the drone attacks programmes have been using the total secrecy surrounding the programme to hide abuses and high civilian casualties.

Article continued on lonk..........
http://www.counterpunch.org/porter06122009.html

by Syracuse update Wed Nov 18, 2009 15:17 Syracuse, New York, USA

Kathy Kelly, Carmen Trotta - who were both in Dublin during the ploughshares trials- and a couple of hundred other good folks headed to Syracuse in upstate New York to protest the drones.

Cop accuses Carmen Trotta & Fr. Dan Berrigan (88) of trying to incite a riot.....
http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/letendre/2009/nov/1...iker/

Grit TV footage (3 mins)
Protesting the Drones in upstate New York
http://www.freespeech.org/video/grittv-no-more-drones

by 2 arrested Thu Mar 25, 2010 03:05 Arizona, USA

"WAR IS NOT A SHOW" BANNER-HOLDERS ARRESTED AT DAVIS MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE

Sunday afternoon, March 21, at the Aerospace and Arizona Days military
exhibition and air show at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, two Tucson
residents were arrested for trespass. John Heid, 55,
and Gretchen Nielsen, 77, unfurled a banner
declaring "War is Not a Show" and stood peacefully near the Predator
UAV (Unmanned aerial vehicle).

Nielsen stated, "When I see the display at the Air Show --- the
fighter planes, the bombers, the attack aircraft ---I see a display of
yesterday's toys. When I see the ground control station and data
terminal for the unmanned MQ-1 Predator, I see an extension of teenage
computer games. When I see our young adults in uniform who have been
trained to kill on command, I see yesterday's children.

"When I see proud, patriotic parents and grandparents enjoying the
thrill of war games at the Air Show, I see tomorrow's parents and
grandparents begging what's left of the world for forgiveness."

Heid stated, "War is not a show. It is killing us. And them.
Combatants and children alike. Our soul and civil society. The moral
order too is a casualty. War is hell. Not a cause for celebration. A
frontal assault on reason. And the earth. War is not a spectacle or
family entertainment.

"Today at the Air Show we see its shiny weapons, not its bloody
victims. Not the nearly 4,400 dead U.S. soldiers. Not the tens of
thousands of Iraqi, Afghani or Pakistani civilians. We glorify the
mighty flying death machines and ignore the havoc they wreak.

"Today, just after the seventh anniversary of the war on Iraq, we
vigil beside an MQ-1 Predator drone. Over 700 Pakistani civilians have
been killed by this machine's Hellfire missiles. Davis-Monthan is home
base for the 214th Reconnaissance Group of the Arizona National Guard
which flies around-the-clock combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan
with the Predator.

"In the shadow of death we raise our plea for peace. For skies free of
weaponry. For an end to war without end. The show is over, let peace
begin."

The pair was taken to the Pima County Jail, where they were processed
and released by 10 p.m. They are scheduled to appear in Tucson City
Court for arraignment - Heid on April 29 and Nielsen on April 30.

Photos may be viewed at

http://tinyurl.com/WarIsNotAShow.

by Cartoon (2 1/2 mins) Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:50

Peewater (Blackwater/Xe) was, not so coincidentally, placed in charge
of both the Cheney-era death squads operating in Afghanistan, and the
targeting teams for drones in the Obama era operating on the
Pakistan/Afghanistan border. In this cartoon, Janet and Gerald from
Peewater discuss the ethics of the two types of death squads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgyqVh69TvQ

by Lofty Wed Mar 31, 2010 14:11

Another point that needs to be stressed in relation to UAVs is the dangers involved for military personnel on the ground when something goes wrong and a UAV crashes. A number of such crashes have occurred in Helmand province recently. The war-fighter not lucky enough to be sitting behind a screen with a joy stick far away in Arizona or the UK will often have to pay a very heavy price for the retrieval of these drones.
It’s not only military personnel being put at risk by unstable drones ,of course, and I think this point needs to be put across . A UAV being tested at West Wales Airport last year nose-dived while being operated by a controller at the airport. Local peace activists said at the time that, had the drone been further into its flight, it could have dropped over the nearby heavily populated Cardigan area with appalling consequence.
While it would certainly be preferable to live in a world where such unmanned aircraft aren’t necessary, in the meantime, there surely needs to be a properly coordinated safety plan put in place to minimize risks to public safety.

by lofty Wed Mar 31, 2010 14:43

Of course there are a number of non-military uses for UAVs. Fly-tippers for instance who pollute the countryside will certainly not welcome their introduction into the skies. Neither will anti-social drivers who put lives at risk or dump and burn out cars.

Notwithstanding such benign uses for UAVs, international aviation authorities are understandably reluctant at the moment to license unmanned aircraft for fear of collision with aircraft. That’s why research into “sense and avoid” systems for drones is so important and necessary.

by lofty Wed Mar 31, 2010 15:51

Whether for crop monitoring , meteorological analysis or protecting our fragile environment from anti-social dumpers, the civil use of the UAV will undoubtedly continue to accelerate into the 21st century. But connecting the robot to the human being controlling it is no easy task.

If we are to exploit civil UAV applications to their full (while of course equally respecting civil liberties to their full ) it is imperative that universities are given adequate resources to "do the maths" . Creating a fully-functioning man-machine interface involves expensive research into complicated command algorithms that would allow for the type of efficient flight autonomy that could make drones much safer than they are today .

Unfortunately in the present economic climate ,cuts rather than increases in education funding is so often the order of the day. EDA last month launched a feasibility study into the safety of UAVs in civil airspace ,which will they say pave the way for global standards to be implemented shortly. Many people in the field are sceptical however. They fear that ,if past experience is anything to go by, red tape and bureaucracy is more likely to ensure that much of the funding will go to feeding the EU behemoth .

by Technologist Wed Mar 31, 2010 17:43

Most airliners nowadays are controlled by computers.

Pretty soon all military combat craft will be pilotless(drones in other words).
Its just a matter of time.

But computer sometimes becomes too smart!
In 1988, one of the first Airbus 320 jets crashed during an air show in Habsheim, France.
The pilots were supposed to fly low with the gears down at 100 feet. Instead, they went down to 30 feet.

As far as the computer was concerned, when a plane descends below 50 feet, it assumes that the plane is making a landing. Indeed, the plane just did that and landed on top of the trees!
(Before this crash, there was belief that Airbus had finally designed a crash-proof plane.)

All on board were killed:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1395624/airbus_a320_plane...rash/
.

by lofty Fri Apr 02, 2010 18:40

Certainly not the way we’d like to see the drones grounded techie!

I remember the incident, but seem to recall that pilot error was a large factor in the French airbus tragedy. I’m not sure if I share your optimism regarding pilotless war planes: it depends what you mean when you say drones will take over from piloted craft “pretty soon”. When one considers the skills and training of the French pilot who nonetheless did lose control, you may be able to gauge the magnitude of the task research scientists face.

What is missing from an unmanned craft is “sense”. How is it possible to replicate in an uncontrolled or semi-controlled environment a split decision for instance? Basically we’re talking here about how to organize and systematize continuous feedback between the organic brain of a human controller and the inorganic matter constituting an extremely complex piece of hardware. Some wags in the scientific community postulate a cybernetic analogy between the mindsets of officialdom with that of science !

All of this will doubtlessly prove to have far-reaching political , ethical and even ontological implications for society as a whole in the future. The debate as a matter of fact has already started .As a member of Amnesty myself, I can certainly appreciate the concerns of peace activists over collateral damage caused by unstable UAV’s in war environments .

by Trial in Nevada Wed Sep 08, 2010 07:32 Nevada, USA

“Creech 14” Activists on Trial in Las Vegas for Protesting Drone
Warfare at Creech AFB

Las Vegas—On Tuesday, September 14, 2010, members of the Creech 14,
along with their legal advisors and supporters will hold a rally at
Lewis and 3rd Street, at 7:30 a.m. and then proceed to their trial
which begins at 8:30 a.m. in the Regional Justice Center at 200 Lewis
Avenue. Charged with criminal trespass for entering the Creech AFB on
April 9, 2009, the activists will argue that, under international law,
they are obliged to oppose illegal U.S. usage of Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (drones) to attack people in Afghanistan. They also plan to
show the court that by entering Creech AFB they were enacting their
first amendment right to assemble peaceably for redress of grievance.

One of the first issues before the court will be their request to
include former U.S. Attorney Ramsey Clark, Legal Director of the
Center for Constitutional Rights Bill Quigley and Colonel Ann Wright,
a former U.S. diplomat posted in Afghanistan as expert witnesses.
Clark will demonstrate that “usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles based
at Creech Air Force Base to kill ‘high value targets’ constitutes
extrajudicial executions and fails to afford all the judicial
guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized
peoples.”

A panel featuring these expert witnesses is open to the public at 7:00
p.m. on September 13, at the University of Nevada Boyd School of Law,
Thomas & Mack Moot Court Facility.

Those arrested included John Dear, S.J.; Dennis DuVall; Renee
Espeland; Judy Homanich; Kathy Kelly; Fr. Steve Kelly; Mariah
Klusmire; Brad Lyttle; Libby Pappalardo; Megan Rice, SHCJ; Brian
Terrell; Eve Tetaz; Fr. Louie Vitale; and Fr. Jerry Zawada.

The group will assemble for trial preparation and reflection, each
morning, from September 10 – 13, outside the entrance to Creech AFB,
in Indian Springs, Nevada. The morning gatherings will begin at 6:30
to 8 a.m. Vigils will resume from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

by lofty Wed Sep 08, 2010 16:58

I’m pleased that the good people of Plowshares want to oppose the “illegal U.S. usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” . It’s very important for winning the hearts and minds of the people in Afghanistan for them to know that there are strict legal controls enforced and rules of engagement applied when confronting the Islamist insurgency in that country .

The judicial guarantees that Creech refers to are of course extremely important , but so often it’s the case that law is applied after a tragic incident takes place .Science must be allowed play its part in ensuring that civilian deaths are avoided before these awesome weapons are launched . The funding of research projects that can tell us why UAVs become unstable under certain conditions should be given priority.

by Kathy Kelly Thu Sep 09, 2010 06:37 Nevada, USA

September 8, 2010

Libby and Jerica are in the front seat of the Prius, and Mary and I are in back. We just left Oklahoma, we're heading into Shamrock, Texas, and tomorrow we'll be Indian Springs, Nevada, home of Creech Air Force Base. We've been discussing our legal defense.

The state of Nevada has charged Libby and me, along with twelve others, with criminal trespass onto the base. On April 9, 2009, after a ten-day vigil outside the air force base, we entered it with a letter we wanted to circulate among the base personnel, describing our opposition to a massive targeted assassination program. Our trial date is set for September 14.

Creech is one of several homes of the U.S. military's aerial drone program. U.S. Air Force personnel there pilot surveillance and combat drones, unmanned aerial vehicles with which they are instructed to carry out extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan and Iraq. The different kinds of drone include the "Predator" and the "Reaper." The Obama administration favors a combination of drone attacks and Joint Special Operations raids to pursue its stated goal of eliminating whatever Al Qaeda presence exists in these countries. As the U.S. accelerates this campaign, we hear from UN special rapporteur for extrajudicial executions, Philip Alston, who suggests that U.S. citizens may be asleep at the wheel, oblivious to clear violations of international law which we have real obligations to prevent (or at the very least discuss). Many citizens are now focused on the anniversary of September 11th and the controversy over whether an Islamic Center should be built near Ground Zero. Corporate media does little to help ordinary U.S. people understand that the drones which hover over potential targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen create small “ground zeroes" in multiple locales on an everyday basis.

Libby, at the wheel, is telling Jerica about her visit to Kabul, in 1970. "I worked for Pan Am," said Libby, "and that meant being able to stay for free at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul. After landing in Pakistan, we hired a driver to take us across the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. All along the highway we saw herds of camel traveling along a parallel old road. I wonder if the camel market in Kabul is still there?"

Jerica says she'll look for it. She and I have been hard at work to obtain visas and arrange flights for an October trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan. [Libby is exceptional in that she hasn't tried to talk Jerica out of the dangerous travel.]

Conversation switches to whatever CD has just come on, and I tune out, wondering if I've done my share of issuing warnings to Jerica about traveling in a war zone.

Tinny music and rural Texan countryside blend together.

My thoughts drift to the Emergency Surgical Center for Victims of War, in Kabul. A little over two months ago, Josh and I met Nur Said, age 11, in the hospital's ward for young boys injured by various explosions. Most of the boys welcomed a diversion from the ward's tedium, and they were especially eager to sit outside, in the hospital garden, where they'd form a circle and talk together for hours. Nur Said stayed indoors. Too miserable to talk, he'd merely nod at us, his hazel eyes welling up with tears. Weeks earlier, he had been part of a hardy band of youngsters that helped bolster their family incomes by searching for scrap metal and unearthing land mines on a mountainside in Afghanistan. Finding an unexploded land mine was a eureka for the children because, once opened, the valuable brass parts could be extracted and sold. Nur had a land mine in hand when it suddenly exploded, ripping four fingers off his right hand and blinding him in his left eye.

On a sad continuum of misfortune, Nur and his companions fared better than another group of youngsters scavenging for scrap metal in the Kunar Province on August 26th.

Following an alleged Taliban attack on a nearby police station, NATO forces flew overhead to "engage" the militants. If the engagement includes bombing the area under scrutiny, it would be more apt to say that NATO aimed to puree the militants. But in this case, the bombers mistook the children for militants and killed six of them, aged 6 to 12. Local police said there were no Taliban at the site during the attack, only children.

General Petraeus assures his superiors that the U.S. is effectively using drone surveillance, sensors and other robotic means of gaining intelligence to assure that they are hunting down the right targets for assassination. But survivors of these attacks insist that civilians are at risk. In Afghanistan, thirty high schools have shut down because the parents say that their children are distracted by the drones flying overhead and that it's unsafe for them to gather in the schools.

I think of Nur, trapped in his misery, at the Emergency surgical center. He'll be one among many thousands of amputees whose lives are forever altered by the war and poverty that afflict his country. Many of these survivors are likely to feel intense hatred toward their persecutors. 300 villagers in the Sayed Abad district of Wardak province took to the streets in protest on August 12, following an alleged U.S. night raid. "They murdered three students and detained five others," one of the protesters said. "All of them were civilians." Villagers, shocked by the killing, shouted that they didn't want Americans in Afghanistan. According to village eyewitnesses, American troops stormed into a family home and shot three brothers, all young men, and then took their father into custody. One of the young men was a student who had returned to the family home to celebrate the traditional “iftar” fast at the beginning of Ramadan. Local policemen are investigating the allegations, and NATO recently conceded that they may have killed some civilians. (see www.vcnv.org Afghanistan Atrocities update).

The drones feed hourly intelligence information to U.S. war commanders, but the machinery can't inform people about the spiraling anger as the U.S. conducts assassination operations in countries throughout the 1.3 billion-strong Muslim world. "Sold as defending Americans," writes Fred Branfman, "(it) is actually endangering us all. Those responsible for it, primarily General Petraeus, are recklessly seeking short-term tactical advantage while making an enormous long-term strategic error that could lead to countless American deaths in the years and decades to come."

The Prius is comfortable, but my side of the backseat has become a makeshift office. The most important file contains Bill Quigley's comprehensive argumentation as to why the court should allow us to present a necessity defense based on international law. Bill is the Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights. On September 14, we want to call on him as an expert witness. We and our codefendants have chosen to mount a pro se defense to try to persuade our judge that far from committing a crime we have exercised our rights and our duties, under international and U.S. law, to try to prevent one and to raise public opposition to usage of drones in "targeted" assassinations.

Jerica hands me the questions we can use to elicit Bill's testimony. We try to word our questions so that the evidence will be admissible in court. "Could Bill please inform the court about citizen's responsibilities under international law, could he explain to the court what articles and statutes we will be invoking?" To a layperson, it seems like an elaborate game of "Mother May-I," and we haven't even started developing questions to ask Col. Ann Wright, the former U.S. diplomat, who had helped re-open the U.S. Embassy in Kabul shortly before resigning her job in a refusal to cooperate with buildup toward the May 2003 U.S. Shock and Awe invasion of Iraq.

Rounding out our trio of expert witnesses is former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. We hope his personal experience within the U.S. government might arouse the court's more careful attention to the seldom-discussed legal issues that are fundamentally at stake here. However, the judge has already indicated that his calendar only allots one day for our trial.

Libby, Jerica, Mary and I have blocked out at least ten days, inclusive of travel, for our small contribution to an ongoing effort of people around the world working to put drones on trial. We're in New Mexico now. I feel cramped and restless, and I wonder if Tucumcari, where we plan to stop for lunch, has internet. We can't possibly bring the testimony of Afghans and Pakistanis to court this Tuesday. Their testimony, borne on bodies scarred and mutilated and harbored in memories of nightmare, will never be given away and cannot be given in court. Extrajudicial killings are killings without rule of law, without trial. Few if any Afghan or Pakistani civilian survivors of U.S. wars will ever travel to a U.S. court of law for consideration of their grievances.

And at this moment I realize that if we were four Afghans or Pakistanis or Iraqis traveling in a war zone, we'd have spent this entire trip watching not the Southwestern landscape, but the skies.

by Democracy Now Tue Sep 14, 2010 10:42

ACTION BACKGROUOND - AGAINST DRONE WARFARE DIRECTED FROM CREECH A.FB. IN NEVADA U.S.A.
http://vcnv.org/drones-on-trial-in-las-vegas-sept-14th-2010

Below:

* Link to today's Democracy Now pre-trial interview with Kathy Kelly

* New Youtube clips from Kathy Kelly's July 29th visit to DM

* "The Indefensible Drones: A Ground Zero Reflection" by Kathy Kelly
published in Common Dreams

Updates on trial to follow.....

Sept 13 - Pretrial interview with Kathy Kelly on Democracy Now
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/13/activists_go_on_t...evada

-----------------------

Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence www.vcnv.org spoke on
the DM based radio show Fallon Forum prior to a talk she gave in Des
Moines July 29th. Her topic was the U.S. drone use in the Middle East
and the up coming trial of the Creech 14 soon to be held.

10 min Youtube clip from WOW interview July 29th
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwLKtBnIEJQ

9 min Youtube clip from Kelly talked about the Drones in DM July 29th
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPuwoDrDD4U&feature=related

Youtube clips from videographer Rodger Routh
[email protected]

by Court Report Vegas Wed Sep 15, 2010 14:27 Las vegas, Nevada, USA

Fourteen anti-war activists may have made history today in a Las Vegas courtroom when they turned a misdemeanor trespassing trial into a possible referendum on America’s newfound taste for remote-controlled warfare.

The so-called Creech 14, a group of peace activists from across the country, went on trial this morning for allegedly trespassing onto Creech Air Force Base in April 2009.

From the start of today’s trial, prosecutors did their best to keep the focus on whether the activists were guilty of allegations they illegally entered the base and refused to leave as a way to protest the base’s role as the little-known headquarters for U.S. military operations involving unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, over Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

But a funny thing happened on the way to prosecutors’ hope for a quick decision.

Appearing as witnesses for the Creech 14 today were some of the biggest names in the modern anti-war movement: Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson; Ann Wright, a retired U.S. Army colonel and one of three former U.S. State Department officials who resigned on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq; and Bill Quigley, legal director for the New York City-based Center for Constitutional Rights.

By the time those three witnesses finished their testimony as to why they believed the activists had protested at the base, they’d managed to convince Las Vegas Township Justice Court Judge William Jansen to delay his verdict for four months — and had managed clearly to frustrate prosecutors.

http://blogs.lasvegascitylife.com/cityblog/2010/09/14/v...39790

by Update Trial Wed Sep 15, 2010 20:07

The “Creech 14” went to trial on September 14, 2010 in Clark County
Regional Court in Las Vegas, Nevada. The case originated during a week
of demonstrations and vigils in April 2009, when the activists entered
Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs to highlight the serious
injustice of the U.S. military’s use of drones, or Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAVs) in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Crews at Creech control
the drones used in these expanding wars, including killing civilians
in remote controlled assassination attacks. The protesters were
charged with trespassing. Judge William Jansen scheduled the verdict
for January 27, 2011
.
Judge Jansen allowed the pro-se defendants to call three expert
witnesses – former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, retired Col. and
former Embassy Official Ann Wright, and Bill Quigley, Legal Director
of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

“Targeted assassinations by Predator and Reaper drones,” said
defendant Renee Espeland, “must be catapulted into the court of public
opinion. I am bound by the law of our land that makes it my duty to
stop the killing of civilians and to protect U.S. soldiers being
ordered to perform illegal acts.”

The judge limited the defense to questions strictly pertaining to the
charge of trespass. However, through carefully crafted questions, the
defendants were able to extract several key points from their
witnesses:

- Intentional killing is a war crime, as embodied in U.S. constitutional law.

- Drone strikes by U.S. and coalition forces kill a disproportionate
number of civilians.

- People have the right, even the duty, to stop war crimes.

- According to the Nuremberg principles, individuals are required to
disobey domestic orders that cause crimes against humanity.

Defendant Brian Terrell delivered the group's closing statement.
Referring to earlier mention of a classic metaphor used in cases
invoking the necessity defense, he depicted a house on fire, with a
baby trapped inside. “The house is on fire; the baby is in the house,”
said Terrell, “We fourteen are ones who see the smoke, and will not
allow a ‘no trespass’ sign to stop us from reaching burning children.”
Terrell was speaking about the civilian deaths caused by U.S. drones
in Afghanistan.

The Creech 14 include Fr. John Dear, SJ; Dennis DuVall; Renee
Espeland; Judy Homanich; Kathy Kelly; Fr. Steve Kelly, SJ; Mariah
Klusmire; Brad Lyttle; Libby Pappalardo; Sr. Megan Rice, SHCJ; Brian
Terrell; Eve Tetaz; Fr. Louie Vitale, OFM; and Fr. Jerry Zawada, OFM.
Espeland, Fr. Kelly, Klusmire, Rice, Terrell, Vitale and Zawada all
live in or volunteer regularly with various Catholic Worker
communities around the country

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Las Vegas Sun Photo and Report
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/sep/14/judge-delay...rial/

by Jerica - White Rose Catholic Worker Chicago Sat Sep 18, 2010 07:54

September 17, 2010

I received an education yesterday.

I wasn’t in a classroom. I wasn’t laboring over a paper, strategizing in a small group, poring over a textbook or hustling across campus. I was sitting as a spectator in the front row of Judge Jansen’s courtroom in Clark County, Nevada.

Fourteen peace activists were on trial for trying to hand-deliver a letter to the base commander at Creech Air Force Base in April of 2009. Their letter laid out concerns about usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones, for surveillance and combat purposes in Afghanistan. The Creech 14 believe that the usage of remote aerial vehicles to hunt down and kill people in other lands amounts to targeted assassination and is prohibited by international and U.S. law. Soldiers carrying M16s stopped them after they had walked past the guardhouse at the base entrance and a few hours later Nevada state troopers handcuffed the Creech 14 and took them into custody.

The next day, they were charged with trespass to a military facility and released. The charges were later dropped, then reinstated. Defendants, upon learning of a September 14, 2010 court date, had ten months to plan for their trial. They decided to represent themselves pro se and to call, as expert witnesses, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Colonel Ann Wright and Professor Bill Quigley, the Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. What were the chances that a Las Vegas court that normally handles traffic violations and minor offenses would admit three expert witnesses to testify on behalf of defendants charged with a simple trespass? Slim to zero in the view of most observers.

In an opening statement, Kathy Kelly summarized what defendants would prove regarding their obligations under international law and their exercise of rights protected by the U.S. constitution. The judge told her, quite firmly, that any testimony unrelated to the charge of trespass would be disallowed.

Yet, much to our surprise, Judge Jansen decided that all three expert witnesses would be allowed to testify. Rev, Steve Kelly, SJ rose and called on former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark as his first witness.

After Clark was sworn in, he slowly sat down and scanned the room.

About fifty supporters filled the court. The defendants were seated in the jury box. To me, they represented a choir of my finest teachers. Steve Kelly remained standing, and then, with great care, questioned Ramsey Clark, first to establish his credibility as a witness and then to elicit his testimony regarding the issue of trespass. Steve asked Ramsey Clark about his history as a deputy attorney general during the civil rights era. Ramsey Clark spoke of lunch-counter sit-ins with his soft-spoken charm, emphasizing how important it was for people to violate the “No Trespass” rules that forbade blacks and whites to drink coffee together. Later, he relied on the age-old necessity defense to advocate on behalf of people who protested indiscriminate killing in Viet Nam. Bringing us up to date, Ramsey asked a question. ”When indiscriminate killing is occurring, are you just supposed to stand by the gate [of Creech Air Force Base] and hide your face?”

Despite Judge Jansen’s insistence that the defense could only discuss matters related to a misdemeanor trespass charge, each of the expert witnesses were able to knit together the Nuremburg principles, international law, and the justification of necessity to establish not only the right but sometimes the duty of people to engage in acts that violate trespass laws. Ann Wright spoke about how isolated military members were from public opinion and of how likely it was that, if informed they would respond to any great debate taking place in the public forum.

Bill Quigley, the last defense witness to take the stand, testified that when he taught law students about trespass statutes, he always raised with them the possibility of a necessity defense. Helping demonstrate “the space between law and justice,” he held his hands in front of him, about a foot apart. ”I encourage my students to work, every day, to narrow the gap between law and justice,” said Bill Quigley. “I ask them to adopt a ‘Hundred Year Vision,’ and remember that 100 years ago, Jim Crow laws were permitted, domestic violence was allowed, and discrimination against women, and the disabled were all considered legal acts.

The prosecution clearly hoped to discredit all three expert witnesses. “And do you know any of the defendants?” barked the prosecutor when cross-examining Ramsey Clark. “Of course”, answered Ramsey Clark, maintaining eye contact with the prosecutor. “I love them.”

Following the prosecutor’s cross-examination of Bill Quigley, Judge Jansen asked him several questions, the last of which pertained to Quigley’s advice to law students who might contemplate crossing a line for idealistic reasons. “Now if some of your students informed you of their intention to cross onto an Air Force Base clearly marked with a No Trespass sign,” Judge Jansen wondered, “What would you say to them?”

“I would tell them to weigh the consequences carefully”, answered Bill Quigley, noting that their convictions would come at a steep price.

With the possible exception of the prosecution, all assembled seemed in agreement that they had witnessed an extraordinarily rich education about our collective duties to uphold basic human rights. But, so far, the word “drone” had been mentioned only in the opening statement. Brian Terrell rose to deliver a closing statement. Brian referred to a metaphor already employed by two of our witnesses, that of a baby trapped inside a house on fire. “We fourteen are people who saw the smoke,” said Brian, “We’ve seen the babies dying in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and no trespass sign can keep us from trying to reach the children.”

Judge Jansen then addressed all of us. He said that he had just celebrated his 25th anniversary as a judge, but in all those years every trespass case that came before him was settled with a plea. This was the first time that defendants took a trespass case to trial. Given that this was his first time trying such a case and considering the many important issues raised, Judge Jansen stated that he would need time to study the issues and write his decision. He said he’d need at least three months and then invited the defendants to quickly examine their calendars and propose a date for their next court appearance. All agreed to return on January 27th 2011.

It’s one thing for me to announce that I’ve received an exceptional education over the course of an unusual day. It’s quite another for a U.S. judge who has been on the bench for 25 years to voice appreciation for what he has learned from defendants and witnesses, and then promise his continued attentiveness to the issues that were raised.

His delayed decision gained him entry into the choir of teachers. “Go in peace,” he said, as he left the courtroom.